1. Field of the Technology
The technology presented herein relates to a game apparatus and a storage medium storing a game program. More particularly, the technology relates to a game apparatus and a storage medium storing a game program, the game apparatus and the game program performing a game in which a game play proceeds, depending on a touch operation with respect to a character displayed on a display screen, and the touch operation being performed on a touch panel which covers the display screen.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there are a number of games in which characters or the like are three-dimensionally represented using polygons in a virtual three-dimensional space, and the characters are projected onto a display screen (two-dimensional plane) where a game play proceeds. The characters are defined with three-dimensional coordinates. Motions of the characters are generated by coordinate transformation, depending on an operation by a player who plays a game, and is finally transformed and projected onto a two-dimensional plane, so that the character is displayed on the display screen.
When all the characters are defined with the coordinates of polygons, the motions of the characters may be controlled by transforming all the polygon coordinates. However, in this case, the control is complicated in terms of processing. Therefore, the skeleton of each character is defined with a plurality of bones and joints like, for example, a human, and the motion of the character is defined with the bones and the joints, whereby the control is considerably simplified in terms of processing. For example, this technique is described in Tim Coleman and Sherri Sheridan, “Mezase Puroanimeta Maya Kyarakuta Animeshon (Maya Character Animation—For Aspiring Professional Animators)”, 1st Ed., Kabushiki Kaisha Bone Digital, Apr. 25, 2005, pp. 125-133 (hereinafter referred to as Publication 1). Software introduced in Publication 1 is a typical method of controlling the motion of a character, in which the user can use a computer to generate a character which is drawn in a desired three-dimensional space, and generate animation of the character generated in the three-dimensional space.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H10-188028 (hereinafter referred to as Publication 2) discloses a moving image generating device in which the bones and joints (skeleton in Publication 2) is applied to a deformed game character. In general, a deformed character which has less joints and less irregular surfaces tends to be monotonically expressed. However, if bones and joints are hidden in the deformed character disclosed in Publication 2 and the bones and the joints are controlled, it is possible to confer various facial expressions to the deformed character. Publication 2 also discloses a technique of selecting animation which is based on bones and joints previously set, depending on an input from a controller connected to the moving image generating device, and drawing the animation as game images as appropriate.
Although Publication 1 discloses the definition of bones and joints and the technique of producing animation using the bones and the joints, Publication 1 does not disclose how to apply the technique to a game play.
Although, in Publication 2, a motion of a character to be drawn is selected, depending on the input from the controller, Publication 2 does not disclose a direct control of the motion of the character.